Difficulty
Only 10 easy-to-recognize prefectures. Three candidates including the answer are highlighted, so you pick from those.
When learning Japan's prefectures from textbooks or worksheets, children often memorize the list of names without the positions really clicking on a map. Pref Tap closes that gap with a simple loop: hear a prefecture name, scan the map, and tap where you think it is. That repeated cycle of name-to-location is what drives the connection into long-term memory.
Each correct tap fills the prefecture with its region's color. By the time you finish, the completed map shows the regions of Japan — Tohoku in blue, Kanto in purple, Kyushu in red — giving you a bird's-eye sense of how the country is organized, not just where individual prefectures sit.
Questions are shuffled every round, so even on the same difficulty you never get the same order twice. Prefectures you thought you knew can trip you up in a different sequence, and that small surprise is exactly what deepens retention.
Easy mode uses only 10 prefectures with distinctive, easy-to-find outlines: Hokkaido, Aomori, Akita, Chiba, Shizuoka, Niigata, Ishikawa, Shiga, Kagoshima, and Okinawa. Each has a landmark such as a peninsula, a bay, or islands, or sits in an easy-to-remember spot among its neighbors, making them easy to spot. Three candidates including the answer are highlighted in yellow (taken from the same region, or from nearby prefectures when the region has no others, as with Hokkaido), and only those can be tapped, so young children are less likely to hit a neighboring prefecture by accident. This level is about getting comfortable with the tap-to-answer mechanic and building a rough mental map of Japan.
Normal mode asks all 47 prefectures and likewise highlights three candidates — the correct one and two others from the same region — in yellow. For example, if the question is Aichi, you'll see Aichi and two other Chubu prefectures lit up, and you pick from those. This scaffolding lets you practice narrowing down by region before you need pinpoint accuracy.
Hard mode is all 47 with no hints, and every prefecture on the map can be tapped. You hear the name, and that's your only clue. Accuracy and time are both recorded, so you can watch your improvement over multiple attempts.
Geography rests on remembering where things are. You have to link a word — the prefecture name — to a place on the map, and simply reading a list tends to leave that link weak.
The tap gesture in Pref Tap is the same as learning by pointing at a map with your finger. Hearing the name, scanning the map, and touching the spot uses your ears, eyes, and hands together. The answer comes back immediately as a color on the map, so you check right or wrong in the same place you were looking.
The region-based coloring also encourages remembering things in groups. Splitting 47 prefectures into 8 regions — Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kinki, Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu (including Okinawa) — makes them easier to recall than 47 separate facts. Unanswered prefectures are tinted faintly in their region's color, so the region boundaries are visible while you play.